March 7, 2025 • 21 mins
parent's role with kids in sports is critical. Dr. Partridge, sports psychologist shares her thoughts on the need for parents to be positive with their kids when playing
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Why Johnny Hates Sports is broadcast live Fridays at 11AM ET on W4CY Radio (www.w4cy.com) part of Talk 4 Radio (www.talk4radio.com) on the Talk 4 Media Network (www.talk4media.com). Why Johnny Hates Sports is viewed on Talk 4 TV (www.talk4tv.com).
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
The topics and opinions expressed in the following show are
solely those of the hosts and their guests, and not
those of w FOCY Radio. It's employees are affiliates. We
make no recommendations or endorsements for radio show programs, services,
or products mentioned on air or on our web. No liability,
explicit or implied shall be extended to W FOURCY Radio
or its employees are affiliates. Any questions or comments should
be directed to those show hosts. Thank you for choosing
(00:21):
W FOURCY Radio.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
Sports for kids in America began with what we affectionately
called sandlot ball, where kids organized their own games, made
their own rules, and played until the sun went down.
Then came along parents.
Speaker 3 (01:01):
I'm gonna get you to night because you let me down.
Speaker 4 (01:05):
You did.
Speaker 5 (01:06):
I don't get what you do and he let me down.
Speaker 6 (01:10):
I don't care.
Speaker 7 (01:10):
If you've got I'll get you vice cub day.
Speaker 4 (01:18):
Every time I see in my blood curdles. But uh,
I'm just happy this morning. We've got a real special guest,
the East Georgia Flash Ross Smith. But uh yeah, Ross,
I'm gonna play something first if you don't mind, just
kind of set the move for the deal. But yeah,
(01:39):
I did a post for Huffington Post and they recorded it.
So I want you to hear this just for second
a couple of minutes, and we'll get together.
Speaker 3 (01:50):
Before Fred Ang founded the National Alliance for Youth Sports,
he had a wealth of experience dealing with kids in sports.
When his kids started playing baseball, he knew about win
it all lost coaches, especially those that were the parents
of one of the kids on the team. After all,
he was the director of an organization that included fifteen
thousand kids playing all sports year round, from boys football
(02:12):
to girls softball. One day, he wanted to see for
myself if these horror stories were true. So on a
Saturday morning, he decided to check things out and go
to a game being played in his neighborhood. The teams
playing were eight and nine year olds. On the mound
was the son of a coach who was one of
the thousands of dads in America who were out there
coaching their kid in baseball every year. Around the third inning,
(02:34):
he noticed that the nine year old pitcher was grabbing
his elbow after each pitch. In the next inning, it
got worse as he was holding his arm against his
chest with a grimace on his face. He was obviously
in a lot of pain. His father just kept yelling
at him to get it over the plate. Suddenly, the
umpire stopped the game and called for the father to
come to the mound. Since he was seated along the
(02:56):
first baseline, he could hear the whole conversation between the
umpire and the dad. The umpire said to the father,
your son is in obvious pain, and I think it
would be wise to take him out of the game.
The dad responded by saying, he's my son, and if
I want him out of the game, it's up to me,
not you. At that point, the boy begins crying out
(03:16):
loud and says, but Dad, my arm hurts. The dad responded, son,
I've told you that this is a man's game. Now
get in there and pitch. At that point, the umpire
called the game and said to the dad, I refuse
to allow you to abuse this kid like that game over.
Fred said he had heard physicians say on more than
one occasion that organized sports for kids is one of
(03:38):
our nation's greatest examples of child abuse, without communities demanding
that there is a system in place to remove coaches
like the above, then the horror stories will continue and
the Tommy John surgeries will continue to soar.
Speaker 4 (03:53):
Yeah you heard it, and you know, I am so
happy to have Ross on our show today.
Speaker 8 (03:58):
He's kind of a post guy for.
Speaker 4 (04:02):
Starting out at the youth level and then going all
the way up to sign a guy contract with the
major leagues.
Speaker 8 (04:09):
So, Ross, I want to thank you for being here today.
Speaker 4 (04:12):
I know you're really busy and what you're doing there
at the premise shop, and it's just a stroke of
luck that I talk to you and ask you what
you did in your background. So do me a favor
and tell the audience a little bit about your background.
Speaker 6 (04:28):
Sure, absolutely, Well, First, Fred, I want to say thank
you for inviting me on and having me here, giving
me the opportunity to kind of, you know, spread a
little bit of knowledge about kind of what's going on
in the youth you know, sports world as far as
just what I've seen and you know, in my opinion,
so thanks for having me. Background is in a nutshell,
(04:49):
is all sports related, your prototypical I think jock category.
Speaker 5 (04:55):
Growing up where my first word was ball.
Speaker 6 (04:59):
My dad was a baseball player collegiately and then professionally.
My mom was a Division one basketball player and then
went on and did thirty years of high school varsity coaching.
She's in the Georgia High School Sports Hall of Fame
for that. My dad is in the Georgia Dugout Club
for his professional scout experience that he did. He retired
(05:21):
about six or seven years ago with the Saint Louis
Cardinals after twenty nine years.
Speaker 5 (05:26):
So sports and.
Speaker 6 (05:29):
Anything round and competitiveness, and even as much as on
the business side of how things go. I've kind of
had a firsthand experience with it for majority of my life.
So seeing it firsthand, it's.
Speaker 8 (05:47):
Around.
Speaker 5 (05:47):
It's a real thing.
Speaker 7 (05:49):
It's amazing.
Speaker 4 (05:50):
You know here what you're talking about being in the
Hall of Fame with your.
Speaker 7 (05:54):
Dad and Georgia.
Speaker 4 (05:56):
I noticed reading up about you that you were all
American in the state of Georgia.
Speaker 7 (06:02):
And but one of the things Rossa.
Speaker 4 (06:04):
Had always in the treats me about baseball or whatever
particular sport is.
Speaker 7 (06:10):
You know, when did you start? When was the first time.
Speaker 8 (06:13):
You had a bat in your hand? You're going out
and learning to play the game.
Speaker 5 (06:16):
How old were you for me?
Speaker 6 (06:18):
My like I said, my first word was ball, So
I don't remember this, but my parents have video, old
VHS video of me going out in the backyard and
putting one of those big white balls on one of
those huge old plastic teas and having.
Speaker 5 (06:34):
The huge red bat that was as big as your head.
You take a swing.
Speaker 2 (06:38):
Uh.
Speaker 6 (06:38):
They said I was doing it from both sides of
the plate when I was two years old. So I
guess I started at a very young age. Obviously, I
think by sight because I saw my dad being so
engulfed in it and stuff like that. Then as I
got older, I found the passion for it myself, So
I would say two years old was when I first started.
Speaker 4 (06:56):
So you saw, you know, in the thing and in
the beginning and talking about parrot they were throwing the
just kids throwing a ball and grabbing his arm and
I remember that very clearly saying that.
Speaker 8 (07:09):
And it was like, oh, you got to be kidding me.
Speaker 4 (07:11):
And it's one of the reasons that I got into
doing what I'm doing. But saying somebody's got to do
something about this when we got into training coaches. But
tell me, during your period or a period of time
there up until when you signed with the Cardinals, you
had to see something in your youth league level where
(07:32):
parents and coaches got out of out of whack and
being abusive a lot of times.
Speaker 6 (07:38):
Have any story you remember very much, so pretty pretty
similar to the video that we had to kind of
be prefaced with in a sense of kid was showing
you openly that he was hurting, and the pride or
ego or whatever it is of the adult kind of
got in the way of that and wouldn't be realistic
(08:01):
to the human being and just kind of ignored it
and said that you know, basically, it's called him soft
for wanting to come out and trying to teach them
to stay in there, as opposed to you know, listening
to your body and understanding that being a human and
I'm hurt and you need to.
Speaker 5 (08:16):
Do something about it.
Speaker 6 (08:17):
That judgment goes out the window when the pride and
ego gets involved and they just say, no, you're tougher
than that, get it done. And in my opinion that
that's wrong a lot of the times in the situations.
Speaker 4 (08:29):
I remember talking to you the other day about the
time I was on an airplane with the guy that
was similar to your situation, but he was already in
the minor leagues and we just have to start talking
like kind of you and I started talking about the
other day.
Speaker 7 (08:47):
And he said something that really stunned me.
Speaker 4 (08:51):
He said, when he was coaching or playing baseball in
high school, he said, almost all the guys that pitched
when he was have had Tommy John surgery.
Speaker 7 (09:02):
It's so funny. It's not funny.
Speaker 8 (09:04):
But I've been.
Speaker 4 (09:05):
Reading the paper yesterday about a local kid that's one
of the star pitchers well the high school teams, and
he can't compete in the state championship because I have
Tommy John surgery. So in your career and seeing all that,
I'm sure you added a lot of kids that were you.
Speaker 8 (09:25):
Know, danger damage rather and that Tommy John very much.
Speaker 6 (09:31):
So what's crazy is that that number that I say,
hypothetically I have in my head when I was playing
then is probably close to triple to what to today.
And I there's a few factors I think that contribute
to that, one of those being, you know, the demand
for such a high success right now in the world,
(09:56):
that mentality of what have you done for me lately
and what can you do for me tomorrow, as opposed
to you know, this is a long term sport and
it takes a while for you to develop, not only
physically as a human, but in this sport. And people
kind of want to cut corners and they want to
you know, they want to do cheat shots with that,
and you pay the price ultimately with your kid and
(10:17):
his injury because the body can only take so much.
And as much as we want things to be different, Uh,
there are higher powers at play that say that that's
not allowed because the body can only take so much.
Speaker 7 (10:28):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (10:29):
You know. One of the interesting things about the fact
that you're from the state of Georgia. When we started
our organization, the National Alliance for Youth Sports Georgia, the
state of Georgia was the first state to adopt and
implement our program throughout the whole state.
Speaker 7 (10:46):
And they're in Georgia.
Speaker 4 (10:49):
They have what is called the Youth Baseball Association, the
Georgia Youth Baseball and different than any other state in
the country because the local recreation departments control of the program,
They organize it, they plan I'm sure you probably played
in that program.
Speaker 5 (11:05):
In Eastman, that's correct, that's correct.
Speaker 8 (11:08):
Well with that, you know.
Speaker 4 (11:12):
Here we have now across the country a thing called
travel teams. It's nothing new but it's travel teams and
it is kind of in the other areas of the country.
Destroyed that because that destroyed the local program of where
the right departments run the program, the.
Speaker 8 (11:32):
Parents organize the leagues and whatnot.
Speaker 7 (11:34):
Now you got.
Speaker 4 (11:35):
These so called professionals that come in and run the
whole program, recruit the best kids in the area, and
what happens is they go to the right department and
lease the fields, which means the local kids that are
not you know, talented kids can't get a chance to play.
Speaker 7 (11:55):
What do you think about that?
Speaker 6 (11:57):
I think it's I think it's very silly, uh Fred.
I think that if me and you were in conversation,
just person to person, I think I would have used
different words with that.
Speaker 5 (12:06):
That's a little upsetting.
Speaker 6 (12:08):
Strikes a chord with me to where I myself, I
am not a father, and so when I got into
coaching and you know, pursuing teaching the sport that I love,
that kind of put me, you know, along the path
of my life. You know, I found out just how
quote unquote crooked it kind of is to where these
you know, the parents are being too much to their
(12:29):
kids and so they're creating this level of what we
call daddy ball of either you got to get it
done and I think you're good enough, and if I
don't know you, you're not gonna play because you're not my son,
or you get into this travel ball world that you're
talking about, where you get guys such as myself that
again get their ego and their pride in the way
to where they have to win games right now, and
(12:51):
they don't care about your son, you know, or much
less about his physical uh.
Speaker 5 (12:56):
Uh, you know, body staying together.
Speaker 6 (12:58):
They want to see what you can do for them
now so that way they can win the game as
opposed to taking care of the kid and worrying about
his development and his future.
Speaker 4 (13:08):
Yeah, you know, I said in the beginnings, given you're
kind of one of the poster guys for this whole
thing about where athletes start out with these dreams.
Speaker 7 (13:22):
And like you just said to the parent or whoever it.
Speaker 4 (13:26):
Is, is even in travelers telling them, you know, you
can reach all the way up to the major leagues.
But yet the statistics show that less than two percent
of the kids that sign a major league contract ever
end up playing in the major leagues. And you're the
perfect example of that. What is your thought now that
(13:49):
you went through all of that, and I'm sure you
had hopes and dreams of getting to that level when
you got just there but not there, right.
Speaker 6 (13:58):
I mean, it teaches you some you know, some humbleness,
some maturity along the way, because you know, for a
lot of the guys that have aspirations that reach the
minor league level obviously through your sandlot years and then
you know into your.
Speaker 5 (14:11):
High school and collegiate years. If you go that route,
all you want to be.
Speaker 6 (14:14):
Is a professional and not just a professional, and you
want to be a big leaguer. You got different versions
in mindsets of people that you know they want to
be an all everyday major league starter. You got some
guys that are just blessed that I'll be happy if
I just make the big leagues. And then you got
guys that say, I'm not good enough if I'm not
in the Hall of Fame when it's all said and done. So,
I mean there's different mindsets to these, you know, different individuals.
(14:36):
For me personally that I can really speak on, I
was a little bit harder on myself in a sense
of it was very grateful and blessed now that it's
over looking back at it that I went as far
as I did. But when you hold yourself to a
certain standard, it definitely can look like a version of
a failure when you didn't reach. Like you said, I
got there, but I didn't get there, so to speak.
(14:57):
But I wouldn't trade it for the world, and I
don't regret any of it. Like I said, I'm grateful
for it because I use it in my you know,
my life now and it's helped me immensely get to
where I'm at.
Speaker 4 (15:08):
So what do you think you learned from that whole experience?
Starting as young as six years old, you went.
Speaker 5 (15:16):
To that lebble?
Speaker 7 (15:17):
What did to teach you in the long run?
Speaker 5 (15:19):
You're not as good as you think you are? Wow?
Wow period.
Speaker 7 (15:26):
Yeah, well that's interesting.
Speaker 4 (15:27):
You say that, and you said it so quickly, which
means you really mean it.
Speaker 8 (15:31):
I won't agree.
Speaker 7 (15:34):
So when you see so many.
Speaker 4 (15:37):
Players out there, so many fathers and the elite people
that are promising, what do you want to say to
them the same thing?
Speaker 5 (15:45):
Just be real, Just be realistic, that's all I'm not.
Speaker 6 (15:49):
I think I'm asking for too much. But for example,
if a kid throws an X amount of pitch miles
an hour. He's going to tell you that it's probably
two or three to four miles now or harder than
it really is. So I mean, just like any story
that has a little fabrication to it to make themselves
or that story sound better, if you could just be
realistic with yourself, I think you would advance much further,
(16:12):
or at least you'll get as far as you're supposed
to in the sport. I think a lot of guys
expect or don't put in what they should, and they
expect to be more or get farther or whatever have you.
And that's not the caset. The sport's a beautiful thing
in my opinion, And what I mean is it's a thing.
Speaker 5 (16:33):
It's not a person. It doesn't have feelings.
Speaker 6 (16:35):
It doesn't really care what color you are, where you
come from, who your parents are, and all that.
Speaker 5 (16:41):
In the youth world and all.
Speaker 6 (16:42):
That, those politics, those politics, they come into play, and
sadly like that takes away from the beauty of the sport,
where like I said, it doesn't have feelings. It's going
to be here after us, it was here before us.
My point being is that if you're realistic with who
you are, you'll get to the point of where you
should be in the sport.
Speaker 4 (17:00):
If you had to say there were three things that
you learned from your career playing baseball, what would they be?
Speaker 6 (17:08):
One first and foremost, you know, be humble, You're not
as good as you think. You know, keep your head down,
grind work at whatever it is that you're doing every
day daily. Two Understanding failure or that like, not being
afraid of it, not shying away or feeling embarrassed by it,
(17:28):
but in turn looking forward to the next opportunity to
quote un quote fail because all I need is opportunity
after opportunity, and eventually I'll get it figured out. I
may not go four for four today, I may go
zero for four today. But if I keep the same head,
mindset and ability work ethic, and I take that into tomorrow,
then who's to say that I can't be four for
(17:49):
four and then I'm four for eight bat and two
hundred after two days. Having that forward thought in that
mindset to not be upset immediate and right then I
think it's probably My third point is that learning how
to deal with failure and looking at it as opportunities
gets you more patience and more ready and available for
the next thing that you're about to encounter.
Speaker 4 (18:11):
So you're saying that the whole experience in sports, and
I know you've played other sports.
Speaker 6 (18:17):
Sure, I taught you a lot, very much so uh.
And I will say one thing deeper, more specific. Team
sports taught me a lot.
Speaker 1 (18:26):
Uh.
Speaker 6 (18:26):
Team sport versus an individual sport. I think is different
as far as what you learn and can take away
from it. The team aspect and the team concept. It
really does something to somebody's psyche and their mental their
mentality as they as they grow older.
Speaker 4 (18:45):
Yeah, that's so great that you've been wonderful hearing these
comments from beyond. I never thought we would do this
like this and get so much out of what I
really want people to hear and I want them to
know we're We've been talking to Ross Smith from Georgia
and and Ross has been the typical person that we
(19:05):
talked about in the sports that can start at the
beginning and work his way up through the whole.
Speaker 8 (19:10):
System and enjoy the value of what it brings to
you as an individual.
Speaker 4 (19:16):
And it doesn't need to mean that you're going to
have to make it to the top level to be successful.
Speaker 8 (19:22):
I want to thank you again. It's a great job
you did today.
Speaker 6 (19:25):
You're very welcome again. I thank you very much for
having me on with Fred. This has been a blast.
And let me know when we can do it again. Okay,
I'm ready to do it.
Speaker 8 (19:33):
Okay, Man, thanks again.
Speaker 5 (19:35):
You're very welcome.
Speaker 8 (19:36):
Take here you too. Well.
Speaker 7 (19:43):
That was Ross Smith, and.
Speaker 4 (19:46):
What a great opportunity, like I said, to be able
to talk to somebody like that. It's been a professional athlete.
We're going to move along right now with one. I
think we've got something else coming up here in a second.
Speaker 8 (20:00):
Uh uh, where are we?
Speaker 3 (20:16):
Fred Angs?
Speaker 9 (20:17):
Billy Jones's Father is more than just a story about
a boy and his father. It's an eye opening journey
into the emotional struggles faced by children in the world
of competitive sports. As you turn the pages, you'll see
how unrealistic expectations and unchecked ambitions can shape, mold, and
(20:37):
sometimes break a child's spirit. This book dives deep into
the human experiences that resonate with so many and calls
on us to reflect on the roles we play in
the lives of young athletes.
Speaker 2 (20:53):
This program is sponsored by Sir Dirff Publishing in the
interest or better sports for kids, better kids for In
this best selling book, a child, while failing to live
up to his father's expectations, is shamed and humiliated beyond belief.
He vows to never allow his own son to face
(21:13):
the same
The topics and opinions expressed in the following show are
solely those of the hosts and their guests, and not
those of w FOCY Radio. It's employees are affiliates. We
make no recommendations or endorsements for radio show programs, services,
or products mentioned on air or on our web. No liability,
explicit or implied shall be extended to W FOURCY Radio
or its employees are affiliates. Any questions or comments should
be directed to those show hosts. Thank you for choosing
(00:21):
W FOURCY Radio.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
Sports for kids in America began with what we affectionately
called sandlot ball, where kids organized their own games, made
their own rules, and played until the sun went down.
Then came along parents.
Speaker 3 (01:01):
I'm gonna get you to night because you let me down.
Speaker 4 (01:05):
You did.
Speaker 5 (01:06):
I don't get what you do and he let me down.
Speaker 6 (01:10):
I don't care.
Speaker 7 (01:10):
If you've got I'll get you vice cub day.
Speaker 4 (01:18):
Every time I see in my blood curdles. But uh,
I'm just happy this morning. We've got a real special guest,
the East Georgia Flash Ross Smith. But uh yeah, Ross,
I'm gonna play something first if you don't mind, just
kind of set the move for the deal. But yeah,
(01:39):
I did a post for Huffington Post and they recorded it.
So I want you to hear this just for second
a couple of minutes, and we'll get together.
Speaker 3 (01:50):
Before Fred Ang founded the National Alliance for Youth Sports,
he had a wealth of experience dealing with kids in sports.
When his kids started playing baseball, he knew about win
it all lost coaches, especially those that were the parents
of one of the kids on the team. After all,
he was the director of an organization that included fifteen
thousand kids playing all sports year round, from boys football
(02:12):
to girls softball. One day, he wanted to see for
myself if these horror stories were true. So on a
Saturday morning, he decided to check things out and go
to a game being played in his neighborhood. The teams
playing were eight and nine year olds. On the mound
was the son of a coach who was one of
the thousands of dads in America who were out there
coaching their kid in baseball every year. Around the third inning,
(02:34):
he noticed that the nine year old pitcher was grabbing
his elbow after each pitch. In the next inning, it
got worse as he was holding his arm against his
chest with a grimace on his face. He was obviously
in a lot of pain. His father just kept yelling
at him to get it over the plate. Suddenly, the
umpire stopped the game and called for the father to
come to the mound. Since he was seated along the
(02:56):
first baseline, he could hear the whole conversation between the
umpire and the dad. The umpire said to the father,
your son is in obvious pain, and I think it
would be wise to take him out of the game.
The dad responded by saying, he's my son, and if
I want him out of the game, it's up to me,
not you. At that point, the boy begins crying out
(03:16):
loud and says, but Dad, my arm hurts. The dad responded, son,
I've told you that this is a man's game. Now
get in there and pitch. At that point, the umpire
called the game and said to the dad, I refuse
to allow you to abuse this kid like that game over.
Fred said he had heard physicians say on more than
one occasion that organized sports for kids is one of
(03:38):
our nation's greatest examples of child abuse, without communities demanding
that there is a system in place to remove coaches
like the above, then the horror stories will continue and
the Tommy John surgeries will continue to soar.
Speaker 4 (03:53):
Yeah you heard it, and you know, I am so
happy to have Ross on our show today.
Speaker 8 (03:58):
He's kind of a post guy for.
Speaker 4 (04:02):
Starting out at the youth level and then going all
the way up to sign a guy contract with the
major leagues.
Speaker 8 (04:09):
So, Ross, I want to thank you for being here today.
Speaker 4 (04:12):
I know you're really busy and what you're doing there
at the premise shop, and it's just a stroke of
luck that I talk to you and ask you what
you did in your background. So do me a favor
and tell the audience a little bit about your background.
Speaker 6 (04:28):
Sure, absolutely, Well, First, Fred, I want to say thank
you for inviting me on and having me here, giving
me the opportunity to kind of, you know, spread a
little bit of knowledge about kind of what's going on
in the youth you know, sports world as far as
just what I've seen and you know, in my opinion,
so thanks for having me. Background is in a nutshell,
(04:49):
is all sports related, your prototypical I think jock category.
Speaker 5 (04:55):
Growing up where my first word was ball.
Speaker 6 (04:59):
My dad was a baseball player collegiately and then professionally.
My mom was a Division one basketball player and then
went on and did thirty years of high school varsity coaching.
She's in the Georgia High School Sports Hall of Fame
for that. My dad is in the Georgia Dugout Club
for his professional scout experience that he did. He retired
(05:21):
about six or seven years ago with the Saint Louis
Cardinals after twenty nine years.
Speaker 5 (05:26):
So sports and.
Speaker 6 (05:29):
Anything round and competitiveness, and even as much as on
the business side of how things go. I've kind of
had a firsthand experience with it for majority of my life.
So seeing it firsthand, it's.
Speaker 8 (05:47):
Around.
Speaker 5 (05:47):
It's a real thing.
Speaker 7 (05:49):
It's amazing.
Speaker 4 (05:50):
You know here what you're talking about being in the
Hall of Fame with your.
Speaker 7 (05:54):
Dad and Georgia.
Speaker 4 (05:56):
I noticed reading up about you that you were all
American in the state of Georgia.
Speaker 7 (06:02):
And but one of the things Rossa.
Speaker 4 (06:04):
Had always in the treats me about baseball or whatever
particular sport is.
Speaker 7 (06:10):
You know, when did you start? When was the first time.
Speaker 8 (06:13):
You had a bat in your hand? You're going out
and learning to play the game.
Speaker 5 (06:16):
How old were you for me?
Speaker 6 (06:18):
My like I said, my first word was ball, So
I don't remember this, but my parents have video, old
VHS video of me going out in the backyard and
putting one of those big white balls on one of
those huge old plastic teas and having.
Speaker 5 (06:34):
The huge red bat that was as big as your head.
You take a swing.
Speaker 2 (06:38):
Uh.
Speaker 6 (06:38):
They said I was doing it from both sides of
the plate when I was two years old. So I
guess I started at a very young age. Obviously, I
think by sight because I saw my dad being so
engulfed in it and stuff like that. Then as I
got older, I found the passion for it myself, So
I would say two years old was when I first started.
Speaker 4 (06:56):
So you saw, you know, in the thing and in
the beginning and talking about parrot they were throwing the
just kids throwing a ball and grabbing his arm and
I remember that very clearly saying that.
Speaker 8 (07:09):
And it was like, oh, you got to be kidding me.
Speaker 4 (07:11):
And it's one of the reasons that I got into
doing what I'm doing. But saying somebody's got to do
something about this when we got into training coaches. But
tell me, during your period or a period of time
there up until when you signed with the Cardinals, you
had to see something in your youth league level where
(07:32):
parents and coaches got out of out of whack and
being abusive a lot of times.
Speaker 6 (07:38):
Have any story you remember very much, so pretty pretty
similar to the video that we had to kind of
be prefaced with in a sense of kid was showing
you openly that he was hurting, and the pride or
ego or whatever it is of the adult kind of
got in the way of that and wouldn't be realistic
(08:01):
to the human being and just kind of ignored it
and said that you know, basically, it's called him soft
for wanting to come out and trying to teach them
to stay in there, as opposed to you know, listening
to your body and understanding that being a human and
I'm hurt and you need to.
Speaker 5 (08:16):
Do something about it.
Speaker 6 (08:17):
That judgment goes out the window when the pride and
ego gets involved and they just say, no, you're tougher
than that, get it done. And in my opinion that
that's wrong a lot of the times in the situations.
Speaker 4 (08:29):
I remember talking to you the other day about the
time I was on an airplane with the guy that
was similar to your situation, but he was already in
the minor leagues and we just have to start talking
like kind of you and I started talking about the
other day.
Speaker 7 (08:47):
And he said something that really stunned me.
Speaker 4 (08:51):
He said, when he was coaching or playing baseball in
high school, he said, almost all the guys that pitched
when he was have had Tommy John surgery.
Speaker 7 (09:02):
It's so funny. It's not funny.
Speaker 8 (09:04):
But I've been.
Speaker 4 (09:05):
Reading the paper yesterday about a local kid that's one
of the star pitchers well the high school teams, and
he can't compete in the state championship because I have
Tommy John surgery. So in your career and seeing all that,
I'm sure you added a lot of kids that were you.
Speaker 8 (09:25):
Know, danger damage rather and that Tommy John very much.
Speaker 6 (09:31):
So what's crazy is that that number that I say,
hypothetically I have in my head when I was playing
then is probably close to triple to what to today.
And I there's a few factors I think that contribute
to that, one of those being, you know, the demand
for such a high success right now in the world,
(09:56):
that mentality of what have you done for me lately
and what can you do for me tomorrow, as opposed
to you know, this is a long term sport and
it takes a while for you to develop, not only
physically as a human, but in this sport. And people
kind of want to cut corners and they want to
you know, they want to do cheat shots with that,
and you pay the price ultimately with your kid and
(10:17):
his injury because the body can only take so much.
And as much as we want things to be different, Uh,
there are higher powers at play that say that that's
not allowed because the body can only take so much.
Speaker 7 (10:28):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (10:29):
You know. One of the interesting things about the fact
that you're from the state of Georgia. When we started
our organization, the National Alliance for Youth Sports Georgia, the
state of Georgia was the first state to adopt and
implement our program throughout the whole state.
Speaker 7 (10:46):
And they're in Georgia.
Speaker 4 (10:49):
They have what is called the Youth Baseball Association, the
Georgia Youth Baseball and different than any other state in
the country because the local recreation departments control of the program,
They organize it, they plan I'm sure you probably played
in that program.
Speaker 5 (11:05):
In Eastman, that's correct, that's correct.
Speaker 8 (11:08):
Well with that, you know.
Speaker 4 (11:12):
Here we have now across the country a thing called
travel teams. It's nothing new but it's travel teams and
it is kind of in the other areas of the country.
Destroyed that because that destroyed the local program of where
the right departments run the program, the.
Speaker 8 (11:32):
Parents organize the leagues and whatnot.
Speaker 7 (11:34):
Now you got.
Speaker 4 (11:35):
These so called professionals that come in and run the
whole program, recruit the best kids in the area, and
what happens is they go to the right department and
lease the fields, which means the local kids that are
not you know, talented kids can't get a chance to play.
Speaker 7 (11:55):
What do you think about that?
Speaker 6 (11:57):
I think it's I think it's very silly, uh Fred.
I think that if me and you were in conversation,
just person to person, I think I would have used
different words with that.
Speaker 5 (12:06):
That's a little upsetting.
Speaker 6 (12:08):
Strikes a chord with me to where I myself, I
am not a father, and so when I got into
coaching and you know, pursuing teaching the sport that I love,
that kind of put me, you know, along the path
of my life. You know, I found out just how
quote unquote crooked it kind of is to where these
you know, the parents are being too much to their
(12:29):
kids and so they're creating this level of what we
call daddy ball of either you got to get it
done and I think you're good enough, and if I
don't know you, you're not gonna play because you're not my son,
or you get into this travel ball world that you're
talking about, where you get guys such as myself that
again get their ego and their pride in the way
to where they have to win games right now, and
(12:51):
they don't care about your son, you know, or much
less about his physical uh.
Speaker 5 (12:56):
Uh, you know, body staying together.
Speaker 6 (12:58):
They want to see what you can do for them
now so that way they can win the game as
opposed to taking care of the kid and worrying about
his development and his future.
Speaker 4 (13:08):
Yeah, you know, I said in the beginnings, given you're
kind of one of the poster guys for this whole
thing about where athletes start out with these dreams.
Speaker 7 (13:22):
And like you just said to the parent or whoever it.
Speaker 4 (13:26):
Is, is even in travelers telling them, you know, you
can reach all the way up to the major leagues.
But yet the statistics show that less than two percent
of the kids that sign a major league contract ever
end up playing in the major leagues. And you're the
perfect example of that. What is your thought now that
(13:49):
you went through all of that, and I'm sure you
had hopes and dreams of getting to that level when
you got just there but not there, right.
Speaker 6 (13:58):
I mean, it teaches you some you know, some humbleness,
some maturity along the way, because you know, for a
lot of the guys that have aspirations that reach the
minor league level obviously through your sandlot years and then
you know into your.
Speaker 5 (14:11):
High school and collegiate years. If you go that route,
all you want to be.
Speaker 6 (14:14):
Is a professional and not just a professional, and you
want to be a big leaguer. You got different versions
in mindsets of people that you know they want to
be an all everyday major league starter. You got some
guys that are just blessed that I'll be happy if
I just make the big leagues. And then you got
guys that say, I'm not good enough if I'm not
in the Hall of Fame when it's all said and done. So,
I mean there's different mindsets to these, you know, different individuals.
(14:36):
For me personally that I can really speak on, I
was a little bit harder on myself in a sense
of it was very grateful and blessed now that it's
over looking back at it that I went as far
as I did. But when you hold yourself to a
certain standard, it definitely can look like a version of
a failure when you didn't reach. Like you said, I
got there, but I didn't get there, so to speak.
(14:57):
But I wouldn't trade it for the world, and I
don't regret any of it. Like I said, I'm grateful
for it because I use it in my you know,
my life now and it's helped me immensely get to
where I'm at.
Speaker 4 (15:08):
So what do you think you learned from that whole experience?
Starting as young as six years old, you went.
Speaker 5 (15:16):
To that lebble?
Speaker 7 (15:17):
What did to teach you in the long run?
Speaker 5 (15:19):
You're not as good as you think you are? Wow?
Wow period.
Speaker 7 (15:26):
Yeah, well that's interesting.
Speaker 4 (15:27):
You say that, and you said it so quickly, which
means you really mean it.
Speaker 8 (15:31):
I won't agree.
Speaker 7 (15:34):
So when you see so many.
Speaker 4 (15:37):
Players out there, so many fathers and the elite people
that are promising, what do you want to say to
them the same thing?
Speaker 5 (15:45):
Just be real, Just be realistic, that's all I'm not.
Speaker 6 (15:49):
I think I'm asking for too much. But for example,
if a kid throws an X amount of pitch miles
an hour. He's going to tell you that it's probably
two or three to four miles now or harder than
it really is. So I mean, just like any story
that has a little fabrication to it to make themselves
or that story sound better, if you could just be
realistic with yourself, I think you would advance much further,
(16:12):
or at least you'll get as far as you're supposed
to in the sport. I think a lot of guys
expect or don't put in what they should, and they
expect to be more or get farther or whatever have you.
And that's not the caset. The sport's a beautiful thing
in my opinion, And what I mean is it's a thing.
Speaker 5 (16:33):
It's not a person. It doesn't have feelings.
Speaker 6 (16:35):
It doesn't really care what color you are, where you
come from, who your parents are, and all that.
Speaker 5 (16:41):
In the youth world and all.
Speaker 6 (16:42):
That, those politics, those politics, they come into play, and
sadly like that takes away from the beauty of the sport,
where like I said, it doesn't have feelings. It's going
to be here after us, it was here before us.
My point being is that if you're realistic with who
you are, you'll get to the point of where you
should be in the sport.
Speaker 4 (17:00):
If you had to say there were three things that
you learned from your career playing baseball, what would they be?
Speaker 6 (17:08):
One first and foremost, you know, be humble, You're not
as good as you think. You know, keep your head down,
grind work at whatever it is that you're doing every
day daily. Two Understanding failure or that like, not being
afraid of it, not shying away or feeling embarrassed by it,
(17:28):
but in turn looking forward to the next opportunity to
quote un quote fail because all I need is opportunity
after opportunity, and eventually I'll get it figured out. I
may not go four for four today, I may go
zero for four today. But if I keep the same head,
mindset and ability work ethic, and I take that into tomorrow,
then who's to say that I can't be four for
(17:49):
four and then I'm four for eight bat and two
hundred after two days. Having that forward thought in that
mindset to not be upset immediate and right then I
think it's probably My third point is that learning how
to deal with failure and looking at it as opportunities
gets you more patience and more ready and available for
the next thing that you're about to encounter.
Speaker 4 (18:11):
So you're saying that the whole experience in sports, and
I know you've played other sports.
Speaker 6 (18:17):
Sure, I taught you a lot, very much so uh.
And I will say one thing deeper, more specific. Team
sports taught me a lot.
Speaker 1 (18:26):
Uh.
Speaker 6 (18:26):
Team sport versus an individual sport. I think is different
as far as what you learn and can take away
from it. The team aspect and the team concept. It
really does something to somebody's psyche and their mental their
mentality as they as they grow older.
Speaker 4 (18:45):
Yeah, that's so great that you've been wonderful hearing these
comments from beyond. I never thought we would do this
like this and get so much out of what I
really want people to hear and I want them to
know we're We've been talking to Ross Smith from Georgia
and and Ross has been the typical person that we
(19:05):
talked about in the sports that can start at the
beginning and work his way up through the whole.
Speaker 8 (19:10):
System and enjoy the value of what it brings to
you as an individual.
Speaker 4 (19:16):
And it doesn't need to mean that you're going to
have to make it to the top level to be successful.
Speaker 8 (19:22):
I want to thank you again. It's a great job
you did today.
Speaker 6 (19:25):
You're very welcome again. I thank you very much for
having me on with Fred. This has been a blast.
And let me know when we can do it again. Okay,
I'm ready to do it.
Speaker 8 (19:33):
Okay, Man, thanks again.
Speaker 5 (19:35):
You're very welcome.
Speaker 8 (19:36):
Take here you too. Well.
Speaker 7 (19:43):
That was Ross Smith, and.
Speaker 4 (19:46):
What a great opportunity, like I said, to be able
to talk to somebody like that. It's been a professional athlete.
We're going to move along right now with one. I
think we've got something else coming up here in a second.
Speaker 8 (20:00):
Uh uh, where are we?
Speaker 3 (20:16):
Fred Angs?
Speaker 9 (20:17):
Billy Jones's Father is more than just a story about
a boy and his father. It's an eye opening journey
into the emotional struggles faced by children in the world
of competitive sports. As you turn the pages, you'll see
how unrealistic expectations and unchecked ambitions can shape, mold, and
(20:37):
sometimes break a child's spirit. This book dives deep into
the human experiences that resonate with so many and calls
on us to reflect on the roles we play in
the lives of young athletes.
Speaker 2 (20:53):
This program is sponsored by Sir Dirff Publishing in the
interest or better sports for kids, better kids for In
this best selling book, a child, while failing to live
up to his father's expectations, is shamed and humiliated beyond belief.
He vows to never allow his own son to face
(21:13):
the same
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